Aisha, the wife of the prophet, protected and physically made space for transgender persons to pray behind her. As such, LGBT groups are assured protection.

Religious identity is often a deep and fundamental concern for Europeans, yet some Indonesian intellectuals suggest religious affiliation is as much an administrative matter as one of deep personal conviction.

While some Indonesian politicians and religious leaders jockey for Saudi praise, others bemoan Saudi Arabia as a kingdom which has gone astray from Islam’s true religious principles, whose exported Wahhabi theology threatens Indonesian national integrity, and whose wealthy citizens have been accused of torturing their Indonesian housemaids.

Familiar European systems of classification (involving ‘exclusivism’, ‘inclusivism’ and ‘pluralism’ for example) fail to do justice to the descriptions of inter-religious engagement given by Indonesian colleagues.